How to initialize a new Git repository

To initialize a Git repository, open the folder in a terminal and run `git init -b main`. Git creates a hidden .git folder and an empty main branch. Your files are not tracked yet: run git add . and git commit -m "Initial commit" to save the first version.

What does git init do?

git init creates a .git folder holding the repository’s database, settings and hooks. That folder is the repository: it holds the whole history. Your project files stay exactly where they are, and nothing is committed or sent anywhere. Running it again in an existing repository is safe. Git prints “Reinitialized existing Git repository” and keeps your history.

How do I initialize a repository step by step?

cd my-project
git init -b main

# keep generated files out before the first add
printf "node_modules/\ndist/\n.env\n" > .gitignore

git add .
git status
git commit -m "Initial commit"

1. git init -b main creates the repository with main as its first branch (Git 2.28 or later).
2. .gitignore lists what Git should never track. Write it before the first git add, because a file that is already tracked stays tracked.
3. git status shows what the first commit will contain. Read it for secrets and build output.
4. git commit saves the first version. If Git asks who you are, set user.name and user.email first.

git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global user.email "you@example.com"

How do I make main the default branch?

Older setups create master. Set the default once, or rename the branch in a repository that has no commits worth keeping under the old name:

# every new repository from now on
git config --global init.defaultBranch main

# this repository only
git branch -m master main

How do I connect a new repository to GitHub, GitLab or Bitbucket?

Create an empty repository on your host, with no README or licence, so the two histories match. Then add it as a remote and push:

git remote add origin git@github.com:you/my-project.git
git push -u origin main

The -u links your branch to the remote one, which is explained in how to set an upstream branch. If you prefer no commands at all, read push a project to GitHub without the command line.

What is the difference between git init and git clone?

What can go wrong with git init?

I ran git init in the wrong folder

Remove the .git folder that was just created. Check first with git rev-parse --show-toplevel, which prints the repository’s root, so you delete the right one.

git rev-parse --show-toplevel
rm -rf .git

Git says “not a git repository”

You are outside any repository. Run git init to create one, or cd into the project first.

An empty folder does not appear in git status

Git tracks files, not folders. Add a file to it, for example a .gitkeep, to make it appear.

What is git init --bare?

A bare repository has the history but no working files, so nobody edits in it. Servers use bare repositories as the shared copy you push to. For a project on your own computer, you want a normal git init.

See create a repository for every option, and the create, clone and open lesson to practise.